


Then Nothing More

by spacesix



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Blood and Gore, Gen, Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 18:00:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10702197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacesix/pseuds/spacesix
Summary: Five astronauts were sent to Mars on a mission gone terribly wrong. This is their story. This is their end.





	Then Nothing More

**Author's Note:**

> This can be pretty graphic at times, so be careful if you don't think you can stomach it.  
> Chi: Jeremy  
> Rho: Gavin  
> Omicron: Geoff  
> Iota: Michael  
> Sigma: Ryan

`

_“Commander Haywood to the launch pad please. I repeat: Commander Haywood to the launch pad.”_

The world seemed to be moving in slow motion, blurring as if he were underwater. 

_“Hope you remembered your diapers, Ry-bread; don’t want you to ruin your nice new suit when we land.” They were stood on the loading bay, the man next to him attempting to lighten the mood before they had to leave._

_”Gravity Assist” they had called it. Slingshotting the ship through orbital fields of astral bodies in order to travel further. This was the first test._

The red beacons on the wall kept spinning, an alarm to warn the crew of danger. The ringing in his ears the only discernible noise in the capsule. 

Then nothing more. 

…

When Ryan opened his eyes the first thing he saw was eyes. More specifically green ones. Bright, forst-green eyes that he would recognize anywhere. Gavin was sitting next to him, a hand on his shoulder gently shaking him awake. The lad grinned and sat back on his heels when he saw the older man was awake.

“’Morning sleeping beauty. Took you long enough.” 

Ryan groaned and sat up. "Now's not the time, Ramsay." He looked around. Gavin and Geoff were the only other ones in the room he could see, then again, the room was near pitch dark, not much of anything could be seen. “Soundoff: Sigma.” 

“Omicron.” 

“Rho.” There was a pause before Gavin continued. “Michael and Jeremy are unaccounted for.” 

“Geoff, status report on the Crois.” The dim blue glow coming from Geoff’s tablet brightened with the white overlay screen, showing a blueprint of the ship, some parts outlined in red. 

“Six hours since initial crash landing. Engine one offline in need of major repairs. Engine two missing completely. One apparent breach in the hull and airlock of the ship. Oxygen reserves at 27%. Fuel reserves at 0%.”

“So we send a rescue request back to Jack as soon as we find the others. Gavin, location report.” Another tablet screen lit up, illuminating Gavin’s face. 

“Air-lock room of an unidentified Mars lab. Cydonia region. Exact coordinates unknown, but there should be some certification and info around here somewhere.” Ryan glanced around the room, taking note of the fact that both Geoff and Gavin had loaded rail guns across their laps, spare tungsten rods that were nearly a foot long tucked into the sheaths at their hip. He un-clipped his own from the holster and loaded it before pushing in the key pin and holding it until the dull hum and vibration of the magnets started. 

“Has perimeter check been conducted yet?” 

“Not yet, Commander. We were waiting for you to regain consciousness.” 

“A poor choice. The safety of the majority always comes before the protection of any single. And please, none of that ‘Commander’ crap with me; we’ve been a team nearly five years now. Ryan or Sigma to the two of you.” He stood, wobbling slightly, and jerked his head to signal the others to stand as well. “Let’s split up. There’s no telling just what or who is in this place, so keep your comms on and your guns loaded. Try to find the others.” 

“Are you sure that’s a good idea Sigma?” 

“No, but it’s all we can do. If there's someone or something here with us, at least we won’t all be trapped together like a herd of rats. We split and find Iota and Chi. Are the lights on in the rest of the building?” 

Gavin poked around on his tablet for a minute. "No way to tell until we go further in but the solar board claims power is near fully functional. Base airlock systems typically don’t have many lights." 

"If worse comes to worse we use our emergency lights. It's no good running around in the dark when we don’t know what's in here." The two men just stared at him. "Well what are you waiting for, idiots. We have a crew to find and a home to get back to." Ryan lifted his gun, a finger next to the trigger and a hand hovering above the door switch. The hatch hissed open into a dark void that seemed to swallow all it touched. 

…

The trio walked slowly; Ryan sweeping his light around them with Geoff and Gavin back to back on either side of him, their guns aimed on nothing. They passed a large set of titanium doors, lined in yellow and black safety tape. "Lab sector." Recited Geoff, looking at the small chrome plate above the keypad on the wall.

"That seems like it'll be most of the building. You two find a way in and see what you can find. I'll see what I can find further this way before I join you. Proceed with caution." 

"Copy that Sigma. Keep in touch." 

"Same to the both of you." He walked off further down the hallway. Geoff walked up to the doors and ran a finger along the crease where they met. They shifted slightly. 

"They're unlocked. One on the left is loose enough to move without the motor. Ready your gun and I'll open it." 

The metal didn't make a noise as it was wrenched open, Gavin quickly swept the area with his gun, Geoff joining him. The motion lights flickered on upon their entrance, bathing the room in stark white light that made them cringe and blink rapidly until their eyes could adjust. A large hallway stood before them with rooms lining each side leading up to another large door at the end, not unlike the one they just passed through. 

"Gavin, I'll take left, you take right?" The boy nodded. 

"Sounds fine to me. Stay on your comm." 

They split apart and headed to their respective sides, sparing a glace and a nod at each other as they prepared to enter the first room. Gavin was nervous. Anxiety and fear building in his chest and seeming to suffocate him. Michael was missing. They were out of fuel. There might be loose experiments. They had no way to get home again. They might die. Out here in space, there was no one to save you, no one to find you, no one to mourn you, to tell your family what happened. He was terrified. Still he pushed forward, entering the room quickly to sweep and move on. 

Lab 1, Lab 2, Lab 3; empty, empty, still empty. Again and again there was absolutely nothing. Around corners, through doors, room after lifeless room. Tables were piled with scattered and torn papers covered in scrawled words of a different language, Russian by the look of it. Dented and knocked over equipment littered the tables and floor. "What the hell happened here..." No lab should have been this messy, even if the previous residents had left in a hurry they wouldn’t have left so many hazards for the other occupants. Then again, they couldn't have left. A ship was still in the loading bay and the escape crafts was still in port. Gavin didn’t like this one bit. 

He approached the last room on his side. 'Specimen containment' the plaque read. The door knob was scratched and dented, even a slight nudge with his shoulder was enough to make it swing open slightly. "This seems safe." Gavin huffed; his hands shook slightly as he held his gun in front of him. Edging closer with his back against the wall, he pushed his way into the room, the door emitting a low creak that broke the silence as it opened fully. He paled. A figure, or more specifically a man, stood in front of a broken tank. Clear fluid dripped steadily from the pipe connected to the top of the cylinder and pooled on the floor at his feet. Broad shoulders concealed under white and blue plates of armor, the colors assigned only to one person. The man made no indication that he noticed Gavin, instead staring at the broken tank in front of him. "Iota?" No response. He took a step closer. "Michael?" The man turned around. 

"Gavin?" 

He lowered his gun and sighed in relief, smiling as he jogged up to him and tackled him into a hug. "Michael, boi, I was so worried! How did you get here? Where's Jeremy?" 

"Had to run in through the exit back here before my oxygen levels ran out; one of the my tanks didn’t survive the crash. I dunno where anyone else is, you're the first I've seen. I was worried that you all hadn't made it." 

"Ryan and Geoff were with me. They're searching the rest of the building. Let's go." He reached for his comm to tell Ryan, when suddenly he was on his back on the ground, vision swimming from the impact on the cold cement and her now broken comm screaming static into his ear. Michael had one hand on each of his wrists and a knee digging into his stomach, pinning him. No, this wasn't right, this wasn't Michael. Gavin's eyes widened in fear as Michael's eyes turned black as night, only small red pinholes for pupils that marked where he was looking right at him. He dug his nails into his wrists harder. "I was so worried, Gavin." Michael's cheeks split open, starting at the corners of his mouth and traveling in a smooth curve until is disappeared into the hair near his ears in some sick version of a smile. 

"M-Michael?" 

"I was so… worried…" The words became gurgled as a thick black ichor began to ooze from the splits on his face, running down his chin until it dripped onto Gavin’s nose, staining the flesh and burning like acid. He seemed to grin, emitting a slight clicking noise as he opened his jaw, the split skin flapping gruesomely, and a pair of bile-slick, arm-like appendages ending in clawed hands descended toward his face. Gavin screamed. 

Then nothing more. 

…

“Hydroponics chamber...” Geoff held his gun at his shoulder as he slowly edged around the corner. The room was dimly lit by UV lights in the ceiling, showing row upon row of massive steel shelves filled with black bins that had been swallowed by thick creeping vines. Mounds and mounds of rotting potatoes, squash, onions, melons, and pumpkin lay strewn across the floor near the shelves, producing an acrid odor and coating the floor in dark, slick sludge. The trickle of the water circulating in the bins and the buzz of the lights provided the only noise in the room. “What the hell happened...?” He walked slowly over to one of the piles, crouching and picking up an unidentifiable piece of plant, so much mold growing on it that it was impossible to tell what it was. Geoff gagged and threw it against the wall with a wet thump, wiping his hand on his thigh before standing again to finish his sweep of the room. No Chi, no Iota, nothing but vines, rotten food, and a locked door in the back. “Omicron reporting; location: hydroponics chamber 1, central lab sector. Room clear, two access points. Food production appears to be at equilibrium with decay rate. No signs of recent human or otherwise interference.” 

Ryan's tinny, static-filled voice filtered out of the comm on his shoulder. “Copy that Omicron. Proceed.” Geoff left and walked up to a room across the hall. No nameplate. 

"Entering unmarked laboratory." 

"For such a nerd you say laboratory funny. Proceed." He pushed the door open, quickly raising his gun and sweeping the area. "Nothing…" he muttered to himself, lowering the weapon before moving onto another room. Again and again there was nothing. Nothing other than unkempt papers littering everything, glass specimen containers either empty and in pristine condition or smashed with glass and fluid covering the floor around it. He was getting paranoid, all the corners and alcoves where there could be something, or several somethings judging by the multitude of breached containers, hiding. "Who the hell designed this place…" he muttered and kept moving back toward the experimentation facility at the very back of the building. "Entering final room; Experimentation Facility. Entrance door missing and signs of recent life." 

"Proceed with extreme caution, Omicron. I'm on my way. The lab sector door is locked so I'm trying to find the pass code. How did you guys get back there?" An icy dread formed in Geoff’s stomach. 

"Sigma, those doors were never locked. I pulled them open myself." Another pause. 

"Proceed, Omicron. I’ll find another way." 

"Copy that, Sigma." He took a slow breath and continued his trek across the thick, ropy vines cover the floor, not noticing how they seemed to shift constantly, tips wriggling and searching for purchase at his feet. A body lay slumped in the corner between the wall and the glass containment tank, tendril vines wrapping and twining up their arms and around their torso, ending in dark red stains and rips in the fabric of the shirt the person wore. Thorny vines had punched through the thick aluminum paneling and glass, and blood leaked out of the holes left behind. The helmet kept their face hidden, but that god-awful mix of purple and orange banding on the suit sleeve left only one person it could have been. "Chi… Jeremy…" It came out as barely a whisper. 

He dropped his gun and took a step toward the lad, raising his knife to cut away the vines, salvage a body at least to bring back, to have something for his family to bury back on earth. No sooner had the blade come within an inch of the plant than the vines latched onto his ankles, quickly thickening and raising to flip him upside down. He shouted his surprise and dropped the knife, scrambling to pick it up but his fingers only just grazed the handle before he was yanked away and held against the wall opposite Jeremy. He had no time even to recover before another root shot out of the tank, this one’s wicked looking tip hardening before slamming into the center Geoff’s chest, crushing through his sternum and flesh before splitting into smaller vines that spread through his core, grabbing and tearing and squeezing at whatever they touched, making him writhe in agony on the wall until there was nothing left in him to pop. The vines slackened, letting him drop silently to the ground. 

Then nothing more. 

…

The dorm rooms were empty. The kitchen was empty. Everything was empty. No signs of life anywhere. The comms were quiet; Geoff checked in already, Gavin was most likely still searching; Ryan had considered singing to himself just to break the silence but the thrumming echo in the empty chambers made him uneasy. He still kept his gun at the ready, the dull glow and hum of the magnetic field keeping him company through his search. He continued on, deciding to join Rho and Omicron in the lab sector. 

The door was locked and each attempt and a key code he’d seen in the bedrooms came out to nothing. He started to panic when Geoff told him that the doors had been open before, and kicked the door several times. “Come on you piece of shit! This is not the time for technical difficulties!” He ran up and down the path along the wall searching for another door, becoming more frustrated as he found absolutely nothing. He stomped back to his spot in fromt of the door and started firing at it; tungsten rod after tungsten rod slamming into the crease in the sealed door with loud crashing sounds, splitting it piece by piece until he could fit his hands through and wrench it the rest of the way open and squeeze through to rejoin his friends. 

He was not prepared. In front of him in a sort of half circle were his crew. At least, the shells of them anyway. Jeremy sealed in writhing vines. Michael with his black eyes and jaw wide open, blood dripping down the claws protruding from his mouth. Geoff looking hollow and pale, his front soaked in blood and vines supporting him out his back like tentacles. Gavin with his throat torn open, cheeks split similarly to Michael's. 

They all moved forward.

Ryan stood still. 

Then nothing more. 

**Author's Note:**

> The best part of creative writing class is slapping a fanfic into your professor's inbox knowing they wont know its fanfic.


End file.
